‘Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again’
A gothic romance published in 1938 by Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca is a captivating, eerie story of obsession, secrecy, and legacy. Our nameless heroine meets the recently widowed Maxim de Winter in Monte Carlo, and despite the twenty-year age gap, they quickly marry and return to his stately home in Cornwall. But life at Manderley is not the romantic dream the new Mrs de Winter had foreseen.
Both the narrative, and Manderley itself it seems, are haunted by the omnipresent, indestructible memory of Rebecca, Maxim’s first wife. Though presented as a romance between the heroine and her husband, it is the relationship between the late and current Mrs de Winter that captivates the reader. Characterised by jealousy, hatred, and desire, it is the connection and opposition of these two women that makes this book so memorable.
When contrasted with the dominance and vividness of Rebecca, dead yet immortalised even in the title, it is our living protagonist who is the ghost: anonymous, passive, forgotten.
The setting of this relationship within Manderley adds another layer of complexity, the house featuring almost as a character itself, hiding a multitude of dark secrets.
Described by du Maurier herself as ‘psychological and rather macabre,’ Rebecca is the perfect book to pick up as the nights start drawing in, and the atmosphere in Edinburgh becomes more gothic and mysterious. A clear recommendation for fans of Jane Eyre (to which there are obvious literary links) and Wuthering Heights, it is also an excellent entrance into the world of classics for more contemporary readers; Rebecca is timeless and unbelievably modern. Shocking and seductive, the novel explores complex themes such as identity, femininity and class anxiety in an extremely accessible and gripping manner, with a plot that will haunt the reader just as the memory of Rebecca does Manderley.
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